Virgin Media Community

[VMCopperUser]

Yea, Connection count is the same either way.

I don't have any "Smart" devices so haven't looked in detail at how some of them work, but with the world still stuck on IPv4 then yes being stuck connected to a central sever (like most messaging apps work) is probably the best way.

IPv6 will and should change that.  The Central server will probably stay even after migration, but your devices would probably be allowed direct communication instead of passing through a proxy.  Some "connected" devices are not connected through central severs for their main task, so in a way both of you are correct.  But those not using a central type of server might not be contactable.

I will go back to what I said earlier, chicken and egg.  Will the design work or be a problem in the future, we wont know until we try.  But I know waiting until the last moment to do something rarely works well (Look at UK politics at the moment!).

The Game Consoles, VoIP, and VPN/Remote file access are really three of the most simple things that NAT gets the way of, to me just those three things are enough to say we need IPv6 now.  There's other benefits to IPv6 that we don't even touch on that much.  Basically it's time to start, not time to keep thinking about it.

I guess the only upshot of VM taking so long, is that by the time they finally get ready to deploy DS-Lite, the world will have moved to IPv6 and they can just shelve the whole thing.

[jonathanm]

Pretty much all of the main consumer "IoT" devices will register with a server (more likely a set of services running in someones cloud that can handle load balancing for you). I don't think this will change whether running on IPv4 or IPv6, primarilary because it makes it easy for device supplier to provide a consistent experience for non-technical and technical users alike (most don't care about the specifics they just want it to work when the open the app on their phone!). This probably covers off the most common [IoT] devices that most people will come across.

Very simply, other categories might be industrial (sensors, etc.) and enthusiast (who will know what they are doing, but in terms of numbers I guess will be a minority). For machine to machine there has to be some form of discover, I'd expect this to be over local networks rather than just directly to the internet, otherwise they will probably need to register themselves. Directly addressable devices will exist, but how are they discovered? You either need DNS or to know the v6 address (not likely), and as already mentioned here that DNS would need to be registered for direct connectivity. I can see an application for this, but for most consumer routers the firewall blocks incoming connections as this is best practice so like with IPv4 and port forwarding, you will likely have to configure IPv6 pinholes on the router or turn off the firewall. 

Since we are talking about consumer services with VM (and since this is the same on newer BT HomeHub routers which are already IPv6), I don't see that VM would change the default router configurations from manufacturers to make them less secure?

Just my 2p.

[Anonymous]

Hate to bring this up again but I'm seeing really bad performance of my Hurricane Electric IPv6 tunnel. It seems to have started when VM upgraded the uplink of my 100M connection from 6Mbps to 10Mbps a few days ago. I thought that it might be the weird routing that was discussed here a few months back. Looking at the traceroute it seems that the routing anomaly has been fixed and both forward and reverse paths to Hurricane Electric in London is now direct through LINX.

I've run a raw Wireshark on my connection while running speed tests (Thinkbroadband and ipv6-test.com). There's nothing jumping out as being odd, no MTU issues, packet drops or retransmissions. It's just slow.

Anybody have any suggestions on how to debug further?

[TonyJr]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hate to bring this up again but I'm seeing really bad performance of my Hurricane Electric IPv6 tunnel. It seems to have started when VM upgraded the uplink of my 100M connection from 6Mbps to 10Mbps a few days ago. I thought that it might be the weird routing that was discussed here a few months back. Looking at the traceroute it seems that the routing anomaly has been fixed and both forward and reverse paths to Hurricane Electric in London is now direct through LINX.

I've run a raw Wireshark on my connection while running speed tests (Thinkbroadband and ipv6-test.com). There's nothing jumping out as being odd, no MTU issues, packet drops or retransmissions. It's just slow.

Anybody have any suggestions on how to debug further?

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I would contact HE directly.

[ksim]

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@TonyJr wrote:

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I would contact HE directly.

Do you think they will do a "Networking for Dummies" seminar for VM technicians?

[andrewducker]

Not much of an update. But a statement from Virgin here https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/10/update-on-ipv6-plans-for-virgin-media-talktalk-and-vod...

[VMCopperUser]

From the Article..

A Virgin Media spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We are currently setting out our IPV6 deployment plans and will provide an update at the appropriate time.”

Wonder if it was just a basic PR reply - It sounds like one. Tho the "rumor" that they might go full dual-stack rocks... If it's true. They should just CGNAT the public roaming WiFi stuff and nothing else (but that's just me).

[cje85]

I hope the article is correct and they're not going to use DS Lite. 

Virgin Media Ireland use DS Lite and they can't use Modem Mode without switching back to IPv4.

https://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057868651/1

[ksim]

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@cje85 wrote:

I hope the article is correct and they're not going to use DS Lite. 

Virgin Media Ireland use DS Lite and they can't use Modem Mode without switching back to IPv4.

https://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057868651/1

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the most useful answer I got from all IPv6 topics is to switch to another provider, the only thing that solved the issue really well :-).

[jamesmacwhite]

I really hope the DS Lite approach is scrapped and the delay is because they are going dual stack like BT and Sky with a routed /56 or similar. Clearly Virgin Media are in no rush, so I'd rather the delay be for a better IPv6 implementation.

No one wants DS Lite. Its unecessarily less friendly and complicated, makes running your own kit harder, without having modem mode you have to deal with extra network setup and you'll no longer be able to forward ports for IPv4.